SHIFTING SANDS

“My faith is like shifting sand

Changed by every wave

My faith is like shifting sand

So I stand on grace”

So goes the chorus of Caedmon’s Call’s song, Shifting Sands. And it’s true. More than ten years in the community and still I feel that my faith has not firmly taken root. Every wave of trials threatens to wash away my faith. And every rush of negative emotion (sorrow, loneliness, depression, name it!) brought about by these trials erodes more of the already shaky sands underneath.

I am like a builder of sandcastles on a beach. I try my best to come up with a beautiful work of art - something I can be proud of, something I know other people can appreciate. But no matter how hard I try.. just as I start to think that “Hey, I’m doing it.. I’m finally getting there!”.. the waves come rushing in. Destroying what I’ve built. Not always to the point of being “unsalvagable” - but always marring what already seemed to be taking on a beautiful shape.

I used to ask myself why the Lord allows hurts and pains to ‘eat away’ at my faith. But maybe, as the song says, it’s all about grace. It is not about how strong my faith is, or how successful I have been walking the Christian walk. It is not about how close I am to fulfilling my goals, or how many lives I have touched, or how often I’ve stumbled and fallen. It is not about what I have done or failed to do. In the end, it is all about grace.

“Waters rose as my doubts reigned

My sand-castle faith it slipped away

Found myself standing on your grace

It'd been there all the time”

My faith may be like shifting sand. But though everything else may slip away, I know that because I stand on His grace, I need not be afraid of the waves :)